On the right August morning the hot-air balloons come up over Plainville just after sunrise, drifting slow above yards still silver with dew. It is a fine hour to look at a lawn: from up there you can see every line in it, and every line missed. Mowing at an even height, trimming clean around trees and posts, edging along walks and drives, then the clearings that start and end the season — that is the whole discipline, and it does not get shorter. Sandy ground grows grass fast in summer and burns it fast in a dry spell, so the schedule has to bend with the weather rather than fight it. Sticking to it is what makes a yard on a Plainville street look, all season, like it is being watched over.